Senator Batters: That’s just the kind of answer I would expect from a senator belonging to the government party. Your deputy leader voted to overturn the committee chair’s ruling that removing barns from the exemption was out of order. Plus, she voted to cut the bill’s sunset clause to render it practically useless. I know what the farmers she is supposed to represent in Alberta would think of that.

You are dodging the question, Senator Gold: What is this Trudeau government’s problem with the farmers who feed us?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, last week, your government deputy leader went to the Agriculture and Forestry Committee to help gut a bill that would exempt farmers from paying the carbon tax on propane and natural gas. This week, Senator Gold, you went to the same committee and voted for an amendment to further weaken that bill.

First, the Trudeau government told farmers they didn’t need a carbon tax exemption. Then they fixed only a small part, and when a private member’s bill to correct this passed the House of Commons with all party support, Trudeau-appointed senators try to delay and gut it. Now, you and your deputy leader, as the Trudeau government’s representatives in the Senate, have stepped into private member’s business at committee to ensure farmers get a raw deal.

Who gave you those marching orders? Was it the Prime Minister’s Office? It’s obvious cabinet doesn’t want the bill. Why is this Trudeau government so determined to hurt farmers with this punitive carbon tax?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, I want to ask you a question about the coordinating amendment which coordinates with Bill C-291 — it’s a bill that I’m honoured to sponsor in the Senate, and a bill that was initiated by my MP colleagues Mel Arnold and Frank Caputo in the House of Commons, and passed unanimously. Now we’re waiting for the Legal Committee to study it. I think it’s very forward-looking on the part of those who added this language in order to change the language from “child pornography” to “child sexual abuse and exploitation material.” I just want to thank those who had done that for this particular bill, and also thank the government for accepting that amendment. I’m wondering if there is any further comment that you could provide to us regarding more explanation about that. Thank you.